DVT DAY 187
Friday and this is the day the plumber is due to sort out our troublesome boiler so today is a day to get up and be ready for his arrival. He duly arrives and sets to work drilling holes in the wall and drinking coffee. He disappears outside and there is more drilling and the odd mutter. During this time the storage boxes I ordered from Amazon arrive, these are an essential part of the plan to move things to enable the re-pipe that starts on Monday. A few moments later another deliver arrives, this time some low fence panels to install at the end of the garden. It seems the projects are mounting up. Happily the new thermostat I put in the immersion heater yesterday seems to be working okay, so our plan B in case of boiler failure appears to be working. By lunchtime the plumber has finished and we now have a new outlet pipe and air brake in the system so that it will no longer suck water back into the boiler. Hurray, I pay the man and he leaves to be followed by myself and my partner as we head off to collect my partners mother. Todays the day we are taking her to the mobility shop to try out stair lifts. Its a sort of Alton Towers for olds.
We get to the shop and get them to open up the flat entrance as the entrance to the shop has three steps that our 92 year old cannot manage. It strikes me as madness that the access to this mobility shop is so inappropriate, it is such a poor model and insensitive to the needs of the very people it proports to serve. Any way we get in side and set about trying out the stair lifts. The whole place is full of mobility aids including rows of scooters lined up like they are ready for a old fashioned grand prix.
The technology has come on a long way and the range of available aids is now very different from even a few years ago. A woman in the shop was trying out walkers and noting their weight, height and maneuverability, and ended up unhappy that nothing quite met her needs. We were ushered to a corner so that we did not make up a crowd of larger than 6 people and then we got to try the stair lifts they had in store. Not being able to go up and down stairs or at least thinking that this is something that one is no longer capable of is a challenge, so there were the inevitable discussions about missing walking up stairs and the previous experiences and advice that had been given. However it turned out that the stair lift was easy to operate and even turned you round at the top of the stairs so you faced away from the stairs. After a couple of goes it was clear that it got easier to get on and of it. There was more conversation about the pros and cons of the lift and the practicalities of putting one in and the additional hand rails that might be needed to complete the safety of the environment. Eventually we left with my partners mother having a much clearer idea of what was in involved and with the knowledge that she could use a stair lift and that one adjusted to her in her own home would be even easier to use. We took her home and reinforced the message that it was for her to think about and to decide but she was saying by the time we left that she thought that she had not really got any alternative but to go for one. We shall see how things progress.
Back home I intended to train but never made it as the plumber had left the extension cable he borrowed in such a mess it took me ages to sort it, by which time there was no time to train. So I took the time to dress up to go out, shirt, trousers and a blazer and even aftershave. We go to Softly’s and enjoy a good meal in a socially distanced (sort of) restaurant. The nice thing was that at the end of the meal we did not have to pay for it, or more precisely it was paid for by the Burton Groups gift voucher that they gave us a civil partnership gift back in January. We managed more by luck than design to eat the entire value of the gift including a £5 tip. It was a really nice feeling to have had such a nice meal as a gift from friends.
Home, coffee, blog and the final drugs of the day.
